Employees of numerous organizations access enterprise related data and applications via desktops and various portable communication devices such as laptops, palmtops, mobile phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). Enterprise mobility management focusses on providing the enterprise related data and applications to employees via portable communication devices. Further, providing enterprise related data and applications on the portable communication devices enable businesses and enterprises in doing business efficiently.
Usually, businesses or enterprises provide Company Owned Devices (CODs) to the employees for connectivity and accessing enterprise related data and applications. Although, providing CODs is a secure mechanism for the enterprises however device acquisition and maintenance expenses result in increased costs for the enterprise. Moreover, employees do not prefer to use separate devices for business and personal purposes. Recently, enterprises have started adopting Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) approach. The BYOD approach ensures improved connectivity and accessibility to enterprise related data and applications. However, securing the enterprise related data and applications in a BYOD environment is often difficult and poses a lot of challenges during device management, application management, application performance and health monitoring, diagnostics and disaster recovery.
Various systems and methods exist for managing portable communication devices in BYOD environment. For example, Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions exist that facilitate managing health of the portable communication devices, business applications and content, controlling downloadable applications, remotely deleting content of the device and maintaining inventory of the number and types of portable communication devices. Another way of managing portable communication devices in BYOD environment includes using Mobile Application Management (MAM) solutions that facilitate provisioning and controlling access to various business applications on portable communication devices. However, privacy and freedom of the users are curtailed as MDM solutions monitor the portable communication devices and MAM solutions monitor the applications without interruption.
To overcome the abovementioned disadvantages, the enterprises use mobile virtualization. For example, the enterprise can opt for type 1 mobile virtualization wherein the hypervisor runs directly on top of the hardware of the portable communication device for facilitating virtualization. However, type 1 virtualization has limited acceptance from equipment vendors and operating system vendors. Another way of mobile virtualization is type 2 virtualization that allows running multiple operating systems simultaneously on single platform. However, type 2 virtualization results in slowing the guest operating systems. Moreover, the operating systems need to be upgraded whenever there is an upgrade of hardware or firmware.
In light of the above, there is a need for a system and method for securely providing and managing enterprise related data and applications on portable communication devices. Further, there is a need for a system and method that is independent of the users' portable communication devices and operating system. Furthermore, there is a need for a system and method that does not monitor the users' portable communication devices and applications when used for personal purposes thereby providing privacy and freedom. In addition, there is a need for a system and method that does not result in slowing the portable communication device while providing enterprise related data. Also, there is a need for a system and method that facilitates one or more administrators to remotely configure and manage enterprise related applications on the users' portable communication devices.